ITV is expected to tell both the European Commission and Ofcom, the
communications regulator, that it has no real objection to News
Corporation's proposed $12.5bn (£7.8bn) bid for BSkyB.

Sources said that ITV is this week preparing responses to both the European Commission and Ofcom on NewsCorp's proposed bid to buy the 61pc in BSkyB it does not already own. A submission will be made to Brussels by the end of this week and to Ofcom next week in which the broadcaster will apparently say it has few concerns.

The commercial broadcaster has until now remained quiet on its views of the bid and did not sign the recent combined letter to Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, from a group of media owners including the BBC, Channel 4 and Telegraph Media Group, asking him to block the plans over fears the deal posed a threat to competition and media plurality.

The proposed bid was last week referred to Ofcom and the media regulator will have until December 31 to decide whether to recommend a referral to the Competition Commission.

"Given the limited time for Ofcom's initial investigation and report on the effect on the media public interest consideration, we are also interested in third parties' views on potential remedies or mitigations to any public interest concerns," Ofcom said last week.

Ofcom added that, as part of its media plurality test, it will consider how much control individuals have over media.

Related Articles

The regulator said that it would consider changes in the media landscape and look at "how future market developments may affect consumers' consumption of relevant media". Due to the scale of the $12.5bn deal, the European Commission was forced to launch an investigation on competition grounds.